Spotlight on Early Years: A Rare 'Opportunity'

Clinton, Mich.--Participants at an early-childhood-education
conference here agreed that increased attention on the problems of
young children by educational, political, and business leaders makes
the timing opportune for major advances in child care.

But education and social-services policymakers at the High/Scope
Educational Research Foundation's sixth annual conference last month
acknowledged that the chance could be missed without better
coordination between agencies on the structure, content, and funding of
such services.

"We have an opportunity to make some fundamental changes, but that
opportunity is very fleeting," said Patrick Babcock, director of the
Michigan department of social services. "Once we move out of that
position, we will have lost the opportunity to have an impact on public
policy."

Mr. Babcock noted that Presidential candidates have placed education
high on their agendas and that the preschool movement has gained
momentum with the backing of business leaders. For example, the recent
report by the Committee for Economic Development, whose trustees
include many corporate leaders, urged a massive expansion of preschool
programs to stem the failure rate of disadvantaged students. (See
Education Week, Sept. 9, 1987.)

The drive for high-quality early-childhood care, which has
accelerated as increasing numbers of mothers enter the workforce, "has
become part of the whole [economic] competitiveness rap," said Amy
Tyler-Wilkins, a program associate in the child-care division of the
Children's Defense Fund.

Although early-childhood programs traditionally have been2p4aimed at
disadvantaged preschoolers, "middle-class interests have been very
powerful" in broadening their constituency, said Vito Perrone, vice
president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching.

Mark Souder, Republican staff director for the House Select Commitee
on Children, Youth, and Families, said child care could be a "top
issue" in 1988 "if we aren't at war and the economy's good."

Interagency Competition Cited

Although several states have adopted or are considering new
early-childhood legislation, participants said poor interagency
collaboration has sparked turf battles, ideological disputes, and a
competition for resources.

"So much is going on ... and our connecting points are not very
good," said Mr. Perrone. "Coordination is going to be critical if we're
really going to make a difference."

Such comments support the findings of a forthcoming national study
by researchers at the Bank Street College of Education and Wellesley
College, which cites growing activism--but inefficiency--in states'
efforts to fund early-childhood education programs. (See Education
Week, Oct. 14, 1987.)

"Part of the excitement" about situating early-childhood programs in
the public schools "was because we assumed that meant full-day
programs," said Anne Mitchell, co-director of the Public School Early
Childhood Study, who addressed the conference. The failure to link
education and day-care efforts to provide more comprehensive benefits
to children and parents can be attributed to the "intransigence of
bureaucracies in putting funding streams together," she said.

Signs of Change

Although few states now coordi8nate funding across agencies to link
preschool and day care, conference participants said education and
social-services departments are beginning to seek more linkages.

Some examples they cited include:

A legislative commission in North Carolina that is seeking a
consensus between state agencies on the approach to and administration
of a proposed early-childhood program.

An interagency child care council established in Maryland to set
uniform standards for day-care regulation and licensing.

A feature of Washington State's early-childhood legislation that
requires the transfer of medical records from day-care to public-school
facilities and promotes exchanges between their personnel.

Policymakers at the meeting noted, however, that cooperation has
been hampered by disputes over where early-childhood programs should be
housed and what their content should be.

While some maintained that public schools have not moved quickly
enough to accommodate young children, Joyce M. Buckner, director of
elementary education for the Omaha, Neb., public schools, said many
schools lack the necessary funds and support.

Barbara Bowman, director of graduate studies at Chicago's Erikson
Institute, also warned that placing early-childhood programs in
inadequately funded urban public schools could foster inequities in
services for minority children. That concern is a "potent issue for
black families," she said.

Others questioned the wisdom of imposing public schools' academic
structure and pressures on 3- and 4-year-olds.

"I think the pressures will be very high" to stress skills mastery
in public-school programs for young children, said Mr. Perrone, who
advocated restructuring schools to adopt a comprehensive developmental
program for 3- to 9-year-olds.

Ms. Buckner noted, however, that administrators who promote such
models often "face an uphill battle" with school boards and parents who
want children prepared to read and write at early ages.

Federal and private-sector researchers at the High/Scope conference
cited data highlighting an increased need for child care and
demonstrating the public's willingness to support such programs through
tax dollars. But one researcher urged caution in expansion efforts,
which he contended could be hazardous to family life.

Allan Carlson, director of the Rockford, Ill., Institute's center on
the family in America, pointed to studies demonstrating social
maladjustment, insecure attachments to parents, aggressive behavior,
and social "withdrawal" of young children in day care.

Allison-Clarke Stewart, professor of social ecology at the
University of California at Irvine, countered that other studies
demonstrate that children in day care achieve intellectual gains and
develop such positive social behaviors as greater self-confidence,
assertiveness, and less adherence to sex-stereotyped roles.

The three-day invitational conference, "Shaping the Future for Early
Childhood Programs," drew about 100 participants, including
representatives of state education and human-services departments and
private foundations as well as Minnesota's education commissioner, the
First Lady of Colorado, and Congressional and governors' aides.

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